Shadrach's Ex Battery and Rescued chickens thread.

[Perris]

I am sure what I feed my chickens is highly inappropriate - right now they are eating frozen leftovers from a big party I hosted - corn, and cheeseburger, and salad with grains and veggies. It seems popular!

I wouldn't be surprised if that's actually more nutritious than their bagged stuff! So very appropriate!

 

[Shadrach]

I sit corrected.
I will also stay out of this topic because I am sure what I feed my chickens is highly inappropriate - right now they are eating frozen leftovers from a big party I hosted - corn, and cheeseburger, and salad with grains and veggies. It seems popular!

Even worse, it seems Glais likes growers pellets! I suppose that's what one gets having been fed proper food at home all ones life and then discovering junk food. I see uni students do this all the time in Bristol. FFS don't tell Perris!

 

[Perris]

 

[RoyalChick]

Even worse, it seems Glais likes growers pellets! I suppose that's what one gets having been fed proper food at home all ones life and then discovering junk food. I see uni students do this all the time in Bristol. FFS don't tell Perris!

Now that is hilarious!

 

[kattabelly]

I sit corrected.
I will also stay out of this topic because I am sure what I feed my chickens is highly inappropriate - right now they are eating frozen leftovers from a big party I hosted - corn, and cheeseburger, and salad with grains and veggies. It seems popular!

I'm convinced some of the chicks I started in the house developed a specific alert call for when I was eating macaroni cheese

 

[notabitail]

Even worse, it seems Glais likes growers pellets! I suppose that's what one gets having been fed proper food at home all ones life and then discovering junk food. I see uni students do this all the time in Bristol. FFS don't tell Perris!

I've heard uni students also set off fire alarms trying to microwave stuff. Has Glais done that yet?

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm convinced some of the chicks I started in the house developed a specific alert call for when I was eating macaroni cheese

I know mine would love macaroni cheese but I am trying to lose weight so I am trying not to tempt myself and if I did, I would NOT share with my flock!

 

[SimpleJenn]

Mine get whatever as scraps. Saturday I made a huge pot of chili and the grease I skimmed off of the top got mixed with rolled oats and scraps from me chopping the veggies for them. They were so enthusiastic that many sported orange spots after!
I feel Kalmbach full plume, and supplement oyster/crushed eggshell. My one rooster will tidbit the eggshells to them because they love it so much! But I grew up on feeding scraps to the birds, in fact that was a big factor in getting birds to begin with.

Recently we tore out the garden plants as they finished for the year, and threw them into the run. They had so much fun with that!
The free rangers were not interested, they could go out to the woods or field and fill up on different plants.

Tax, some of the free rangers inspecting the puddles when kiddo and I stomped through them.

 

[kattabelly]

Loving the image of Glais as a student enjoying the freedom of being away from home for the first time and trying to get to grips with this adulting business

Tax: synchronised foot inspections during a brief break in the rain.

 

[Shadrach]

Two and a half hours this afternoon. A little bit of rain early evening. Warmer than yesterday. What we did have was a nearly constant 25mph wind from the South West, which cuts accross the field largely unobstructed. The chickens didn't like that much.
I ran a few Glais tests this afternoon; a couple inadvertent.
Mow and Sylph were under the coop. I had some cooked pasta and plain cod left over from the last couple of dinners. I showed Glais the green container; he knows what that means. He came and stood on my foot almost with his head in my lap. I gave him a chunk of cod, he dropped that. I gave him a whole cooked fussili pasta piece, wholemeal of course. He dropped that. we did a couple more. He dropped them all. Then I gave him some cod crumbs on my upturned palm. He ate all of those and his touch is almost as gentle as Henry's was.

I gave his beak a stroke each time I fed him. I got more of a why is he doing that look than anything else.
He was in my way eating grass when I wanted to go through the gate. I gave his tail feathers a tap. He wasn't startled, he just moved over.
I'm fairly confident I could catch him in daylight hours if I needed to and that's really all I'm after.
He spent more time with Mow and Sylph this afternoon than he did with me, or halfway between. This is an improvement. Ideally I want him to come to me when he wants something, not because he isn't sure of who he should be with. Roosters that like one are lovely, for a while but in the past they got under my feet a lot or followed me into another roosters territory and either stood around whining or attempted to face off the other rooster.

Glais grabbed Sylph by the back of her neck. Sylph screamed at him and broke away. One feather lost so not that firm a grab. Glais walked away and didn't bother her further. This is a picture taken directly after. Glais went off to do some more eating.

The above is important. Grabby insistent cockerels and roosters aren't the end of the world and often a large senior hen will sort the worst of that out. It's just one of those things that put the ball in the keepers court and one ends up asking oneself, is this acceptable behaviour and at what stage it isn't. I don't like being in that position. I don't mind eating a cockerel if I've marked him down to be eaten from the outset. Really annoyed when I have to kill one because of his behaviour towards the hens. In the past, with a lot of work, I've kept other cockerels on the right side of that line but one needs to there almost full time.

Glais likes the coop and the run to enough of an extent to make me feel less guilty about depriving him of the environment he had with Perris. Glais will go back to run a few times while I'm there. They are all keen on the corner just outside the coop gate and the other chickens that have lived here were as well. The nettles and grasses are growing back after I dug them out when I was doing the fence and they now provided some shelter from the wind and from sight. I've posted lots of pictures of that corner in this thread.

Glais is wary of people he hasn't met before. Also good. I haven't had the opportunity to see if he would try and herd the hens away from a stranger yet or put himself between them and the stranger. When I sit the stranger down (Sometimes difficult to explain to people if they just sit down quietly and stop jiggling about on their feet, everyone will relax a bit .

Glais went to roost first this evening. He settled down in his spot immediately. Sylph followed next, slightly cautious have turned down his advances earlier, but she got up right next to him. They were touching at one point which is great because some of his body heat will help keep Sylph warm while she moulting.

I took Sylph off the perch a few days ago after roosting time to do her legs.
With most of the coops I've had one has to lean in and ones face is at beak height for a moment. Not a good time to find a rooster or cockerel thinks your trying to murder his hens! When I took Sylph off the perch Glais stood up, but nothing threatening or whines of distress. Some roosters whine when they're not pleased. I took Mow off the perch after roosting tonight. Glais didn't even get up. Mow is pretty calm after the first touch for both a foot lift and an body hold. She grumbled once and that was it. She even stood still while I did her legs provided one foot was on my hand.

I've been digging out the cage in the extended run for the fruit bushes I plan to plant there. I'm tired of the pigeons eating my gooseberries and raspberries! They put chicken wire on the floor inside the cage. It's taking extra time to untangle the grass clumps form the chicken wire. I could understand it if they'd laid it around the outside.

Well that lot needs some tax.

Spurs are coming on.